Resilient railway track construction



cu 11935. 1. G. Ross ETAL 2,24,114

RESILIENT RAILWAY TRACK CONSTRUCTION Filed NOV. 27, 1931 INVENTOR 55 be: i Eoss- E BYW/LL/flMMMC/VE/L ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 10, 1935 RESILIENT RAILWAY TRACK CONSTRUCTION Ira G. Ross and William M. McNeil, Chicago, 111., assignors to United States Gypsum Company, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application November 27, 1931, Serial No. 577,420

6 Claims. (Cl. 238-284) This invention relates to railway track constructions, and has reference more particularly to track constructions in which the rails are resiliently supported by springs to avoid transmitting vibration through the rail supporting base so as to thus decrease the amount of noise produced by the train.

In the copending application of Bruno E. Balduf, Serial No. %,705, filed June 20, 1931, there is described a type of railway construction in which the track is supported upon resilient flat springs so as to prevent vibrations and sound from being transferred from the rails to the supporting railroadbase or framework. The sound insulation of railway tracks is especially important in thickly populated districts where elevated or surface tracks are used, and it is also import-ant in subways where the sounds produced by the passing trains are echoed and reechoed, and are often of such volume as to cause discomfort to the rider in the train. The present invention discloses certain improvements in the general design of the spring and the rail supporting parts over the details disclosed in the above mentioned copending application.

The noises recognized as most serious in connection with electric rail traffic are those of wheel on rail impact, and gear grind. In both of these, the surfaces in which the noises originate are relatively small and incapable of radiating the volume of sound ordinarily present. When, however, the rails are solidly mounted in a large concrete slab constituting an integral part of the complete structure, the latter is driven into vibration as a whole, radiating the tremendous volumes of sounds encountered in ordinary subway constructions.

By resiliently separating the rails from their supporting base, the beneficial efiects of such a mounting will be three-fold: 1. The radiating surface driven by the disturbances mentioned will be minimized, due to the resilient connection of the rails to the structure. 2. Vibration of audible frequencies set-up in the rails by wheel on rail impact will be minimized due to the tuning of the rail mounting under load to subau-dible frequencies as contrasted to the high audible frequencies of elastic vibration in the solidly mounted rail. 3. Resilient mounting of the rail allows the inertia of the car floor and body to come into play to minimize the vibration of the car body by gear and impact vibrations.

An object of this invention, therefore, is to provide an improved resilient railway construction in which springs are used of a character to afford the maximum in vibration-insulation efliciency.

Another object of the invention is to provide a railway construction of the class described in which the parts are designed to afiord a maximum of safety to prevent derailment of a train; also to improve resilient railway construction in other respects hereinafter specified and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification, in which Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation through our improved resilient railway construction,

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation on a large scale through the rail and supporting parts, Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, sectional elevation taken longitudinally of the rail, and

Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view through the railway construction taken on line 5-4 of Fig. 3.

In the construction of the railway, We mount a rail I!) having base flanges H on a substantial, impregnated wood timber 52 which extends longitudinally of the rail. Clamping lugs l3 are preferably secured by lag screws l4 to the timber 12 in a manner well known to the art, or spikes may be used if desired. The timber I2 is carried in a suitably shaped steel frame formed of a pair of Z bars l5 having flanges l6 extending below the timber i2, and flanges ii extending outwardly adjacent the top of said timber. A plate It is secured by rivets E9 to each of the flanges l1, and is in turn secured by rivets 20 to an angle member 2! having a downwardly extending leg 22. A Web 23 is welded at intervals to the Z bar it and angle leg 22, and preferably is also welded to the plates !8 so as to make a rigid box which telescopes over upstanding legs 24 formed on a pair of angle bars 25 having outstanding horizontal legs 26 secured by bolts 21 to a masonry foundation '28. A suit- 40 able packing material 29 is provided between the angle legs 22 and 24 for making a water-tight joint but still permitting vertical, telescopic movement of the frame carrying the rails l8 relative to the base 28. A clearance is provided between the top of angle leg 24 and the bottom of web 23 so that the leg and web may contact to prevent undue rocking or tipping of the structure.

A yoke 36, preferably of forged steel, has a pair of outstanding arms 3! formed integral with a central hub 32. The lower edges of arms 3| on the extreme outer ends thereof, are formed into arcuate bearing surfaces 33 which are arranged to rest upon a similar shaped saddle member 34 of a resilient spring having outstanding semi- 5 circular resilient loops 35 which terminate in inwardly extending horizontal arms 36. It will be seen from Fig. 3 that the loops 36 extend substantially through an arc of 270 and the bottom of saddle member 34 extends substantially below a line through the centers of loops 35. A shoulder 31 formed on each of the arms 3| adjacent the section 33, is arranged to bear against the inward edge of the saddle member 34 so as to take the side thrust on the rail Ill by reason of the action of the car wheels. The spring arms 36 are preferably loosely secured to a base plate 38 which is mounted upon the masonry foundation 28, by means of a rectangular plate 39 secured to the base plate 38 by rivets, welding or the like, a rectangular opening 40 being provided in each of the spring arms 36 of a shape to loosely fit around the positioning plates 39. Outstanding ears 4| are formed on the yoke arm 3|, and lag bolts 42 pass upwardly through said ears 4| and through the flanges l6 into the timber l2 so as to securely attach the yoke 33 to the parts supporting the rail ID.

The spring loops 33, because of their semicircular nature, are very flexible and yet are made strong enough to carry the heavy load of a passing train. In order to limit the vertical deflection of the spring loops 35 and to also limit the lateral movement of the rails Ill under the side thrust of a passing train, the hub 32 extends downwardly a suflicient distance to form a clearance space 44 between the bottom of said hub and the base plate 38 so that the height of this clearance space 44 determines the maximum vertical deflection of the springs. A ring 45 is secured to the base plate 38, as by rivets 46, the inside diameter of said ring being such as to leave a clearance space 41 around the hub 32 and this clearance space 41 determines the maximum side play of the rails I0.

As seen in Fig. 1, a free space is present between the rails which may be washed or swept out and thus kept clean. If desired, suitable connecting and spacing bars 48 may be secured between the rails I0 by using rivets 20 of sufficient length. Guard rails 49 composed of angle irons may also be used on top of the spacer bars 48 to prevent the wheels of a derailed train from passing over the inner edge of plates l8.

It will be noted that in case of failure of a spring, the entire track may be lifted somewhat and a new spring inserted. The rails have great lateral stability because of the substantial width of the springs. As a specific example of a track construction for supporting a pound rail, springs 6 inches in width, inches in thickness,

4% inches outer loop radius and with a spring center to center distance of 1 ft. 9 in., may be used.

We would state in conclusion that while the illustrated examples constitute certain practical embodiments of our invention, we do not wish to limit ourselves precisely to these details, since manifestly, the same may be considerably varied without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:-

1. In a resilient railway construction, a rail, a timber extending longitudinally of said rail and supporting said rail, a metallic box supporting and partially surrounding said timber, a yoke supporting said metallic box, timber and rail, flat spring clips having integral, spring loops connected to form saddle members, the outer ends of said yoke being supported on said saddle membersand means for supporting said springs.

2. A railway construction as described in claim 1 characterized by means for limiting the vertical deflection of said springs.

3. A railway construction as described in claim 1 characterized by means for limiting the transverse movement of said rail and springs.

4. In a resilient railway construction, a rail, an elongated element extending transversely of and supporting said rail, a hub formed integral with said element and extending downwardly, a base plate positioned a short distance below the bottom of said hub so as to limit the downward movement of said hub, flat springs supporting the ends of said element, and a'ring encircling said hub so as to limit the lateral movement of said rail and springs.

5. In a resilient railway construction, a rail, an elongated member extending longitudinally of said rail and supporting said rail, an elongated element extending transversely below said member so as to support said member, and a flat spring resiliently supporting each end of said element.

6. In a resilient railway construction, a rail, a timber extending longitudinally of said rail and supporting said rail, an elongated element extending transversely below said timber so as to support said timber, a flat spring supporting each end of said element, said springs being turned edgewise toward said rail, and parts engaging said springs and rails so as to give lateral stability to said rail due to the stiffness of said springs.

IRA G. ROSS. WILLIAM M. MCNEILv 

